Matthew 16:18-20

Simon Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

In those words, he was saying Jesus was the Messiah, the Anointed One, the One who was predicted throughout the Old Testament, and the One Who would fulfill the Law on every point. Some say that Peter was the spokesman for all the disciples here, but I doubt that as we’ll see soon.

Then we got to the point in verse 17 where Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

In other words, Jesus said, “You didn’t learn it by just being with Me. God Himself has revealed this to you.”

Only God the Holy Spirit can make Christ known to a person. No one can call Jesus “Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

Let’s begin today at Matthew 16:17 again and move into verse 18,

Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 

And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 

 

We should look at this key verse carefully.

On what rock did Jesus build His church? There are those who say that it was built on Simon Peter, like the Roman Catholic church, for example.

Well, obviously it wasn’t because there’s a play upon words here.

In the original Greek it is, “you are Peter, (and the word is Petros, meaning a little piece of rock), and on this rock, (and the word here is Petra, meaning bedrock), I will build My church.

 

Many others believe that Christ is building His church on the confession that Simon Peter made.

I know this may rock a lot of boats, but this isn’t the case either.

Who is the Rock? The Rock is Christ. The church is built upon Christ. He’s the rock, the cornerstone.

All through scripture from right back to the prophet Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, back to Moses striking the rock in the wilderness we see Who the rock refers to, Christ.

Simon Peter himself explains this. In 1 Peter 2:4, referring to Christ, he writes,

“…Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,”

And, in 1 Peter 2:6 he remembers and refers to Isaiah 28:16,

“Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHIEF CORNERSTONE, ELECT, PRECIOUS, AND HE WHO BELIEVES ON HIM WILL BY NO MEANS BE PUT TO SHAME.”

 

The church’s built upon Christ; He’s the foundation. 1 Corinthians 3:11 says,

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 

Christ is the stone; the foundation stone and He says on this rock He’ll build His church.

The church was still in the future when the Lord made this statement. There was no church, no Body of Christ, in the Old Testament. Couldn’t have been because the church didn’t come into existence until after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, and the sending of the Holy Spirit.

There couldn’t have been a church until all these things had taken place.

“I will build my church”, Notice I will! Not I have! This is in the future at this time.

 

The “gates of hades or hell” refers to death.

The Greek word hades, the “Sheol” of the Old Testament, refers to the unseen world and means “death.” The gates of death shall not prevail against Christ’s church.

One of these days the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout. That shout will be like the voice of an archangel and like a trumpet because the dead in Christ are to be raised. The gates of death will not prevail against His church.

 

Verse 19 and 20

And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 

Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ. 

What are the keys of the kingdom of heaven and what did Jesus mean by, “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven?”

Oh, how badly misunderstood this passage is. I must say I’ve seen some dreadful actions by people who thought this verse gave them, the entire Body of Christ, the power to bind Satan and his demons and to loose the Holy Spirit.

 

To get to the bottom of this takes some thinking and some study and we must use that formula that we’ve talked about so often, Who is this being written to and what’s the context.

So, before moving on let’s look at the context first.

 

Jesus has just come into the region of Caesarea Philippi and He’s with the disciples. He asks who do men say that I, The Son of man, am.

There’s no church as yet because Jesus is still alive. He’s not been crucified, buried, and risen from the dead as yet so the Church age has not begun.

All this is still taking place under the law, the Old testament, and all those present are Jews. The Gospels and the epistles simply are not available. They’ve not even been written yet.

Because of this many of the things that are said are very familiar to Jewish ears but not familiar to our Gentile ears.

We must also keep in mind that God does nothing willy nilly. Everything follows a set plan and every “I” is dotted, and every “T” crossed perfectly.

 

Now, let’s look at who exactly Jesus was speaking to?

Well, it was Simon Peter.

This’s where so many in the church get off track. They honestly believe everything in scripture is written for them, that it’s something they must or can personally do. This is clearly not the case and it’s not the case here in these verses either.

 

Either some or all of the other disciple were present, as we see in verse 20 when Jesus, “commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ”. However, Jesus is talking directly to Simon Peter.

The words “them” and “him” make it easy for us to know who’s being spoken to.

For example, we’ve just seen this in action as we looked at Matthew 15 verses 33 and 34 in the feeding of the four thousand.

Then His disciples said to Him, “Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?”

A question! Did they all say this together, word perfect, like some sort of rehearsed choir? I doubt it. More than likely one of them asked the question speaking for all of them.

Bear with me here because this is very important.

Verse 34 says, Jesus said to them (notice Jesus said to them all, even though they didn’t all physically speak), Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven, and a few little fish.” See the words? They said! Again, we ask did they all parrot these words together in a sort of practiced speech even though the term used was “They said”?

Common sense and logic would force us to say no. It was probably one person speaking for the group who actually spoke, yet Jesus answer is very clearly directed at the whole group.

This is exactly the way the communication takes place in verses 13, 14 and 15 in this passage we’re studying.

He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” See, He asked them all as a group.

So, they said (see again, this is the group talking but obviously through one man or possible bits of the answer were spoken by different ones). “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

Then, He (Jesus) said to THEM (the group), “But who do you say that I am?” He’s speaking here not only to the group but to the individuals within the group.

 

Now, from here there’s a big change from the group to the single person, Peter.

How do we know? Common sense and logic because Peter answered. Not “them” as we’ve just seen, not the group, Peter!

Can we see that? Verse 13, Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

See, Simon Peter answered, not “they answered”. This wasn’t the group speaking.

 

Let’s see the verses again in slow motion so we don’t miss anything.

Jesus answered and said to HIM (who? Simon Peter.), “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you (Simon Peter), but My Father who is in heaven.

And I also say to you that you are Peter (Who? Peter! His name is used. It’s to Peter Jesus is talking!), and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

And I will give you (Who? Peter!) the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you (Peter) bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you (Peter) loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Jesus is clearly talking to Peter and only Peter.

 

It’s a huge stretch to say that because this incident is written in the Gospel it’s something that every member of the Body of Christ must do. No, this is something that concerned only Peter and, as we’ve said, it was for the time they were currently in, pre cross, pre resurrection, pre church, and pre any New Testament writings.

 

There’s a very good reason why we should be aware of all this, apart from the fact that we should train ourselves to understand context in our bible study.

Individuals in that day were given special duties, revelation etc that not all were given and certainly individuals are not given today. Why?

Because this new move of God, this change in dispensation that’s coming, the change from the law to grace has only been written about in Old testament prophecy so far. As we’ve said there’s no New Testament writings as yet, there’s no organised body of believers. No authority has been given as yet to any individual to carry the message of salvation to the world, especially to the Gentiles, something the Jews regarded as completely impossible.

In fact, the cross, Christ’s burial and resurrection are simply impossibilities in the minds of these disciples at this time, let alone the evangelising of the Gentiles, and we’ll see that soon.

 

At this time, before these people have the New Testament in a book and more importantly, before the arrival of the Holy Spirit Who would guide them in all things, they had MEN. Faithful men (and women) who were given responsibility by God to teach and to change events.

Peter’s one of these people.

Now Peter probably didn’t know exactly what was being given to him at this time.

The keys of the kingdom of heaven?  Whatever he binds on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever he looses on earth will be loosed in heaven? The Kingdom of Heaven is not even a reality yet. The King is here but not the Kingdom.

Peter really had little idea of these things at the time, and he wouldn’t until after the full knowledge of all that Jesus had spoken about had hit him, and this wouldn’t happen until after Jesus had gone to the cross and died, was buried and risen from the dead three days later.

In fact, these keys wouldn’t come into effect until the church becomes a reality in the book of Acts.

We know these things didn’t come into effect right then because Jesus said to Peter, “I WILL give you,” not “I HAVE given you.”

We can also see that because in the next few months Peter would go through the most terrible times, times of guilt, shame, and self-hatred such as very few humans have ever suffered. He would reject His beloved Lord at the very worst time that His Lord suffering. On that cross!

No, these keys were for a time that was future to the time they were told to Peter.

Now, as we discussed in our seven part series on Defining the Kingdom, who is going to be a part of that Kingdom? Believers! And it’ll be believers only. No unbeliever will ever be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven.

We saw already when we were in Matthew 7:21

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 

Then in 2 Peter 1:11 Peter himself writes,

for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Who is Peter talking to?

We know that from the opening verse of this chapter 2 Peter 1:1,

Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To (and these are who he’s speaking to) To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

The New Living Translation brings this out quite well in today’s language,

This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.

For these people they are assured of entry into the Kingdom, by what?

So, what is the will of the Father that gets us into the Kingdom?

That we believe. That we have faith obtained by the righteousness of our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. No one will ever enter the Kingdom without this faith.

 

But how is this faith to be confirmed?

What’s the process that a person must go through to be a part of this state of belief?

Well, there is no process, no method as yet.

We need to go to the book of Acts. Here we see three methods used by which a person can be saved, and Simon Peter is involved in all three.

Before we go to the book of Acts, we need to understand three words.

Normative, Prescriptive and Descriptive and they’re very important.

Normative is relating to or determining norms or standards. What’s the normal way, the normal standard that’s used.

Prescriptive is that which is prescribed, something that a person is to do because it’s been prescribed.

Descriptive means describing something that actually happened but not necessarily the prescribed thing. It’s not describing something that a person MUST do but what they DID do.

 

Whenever we go into the book of Acts we should be aware that this book is Descriptive, Not Prescriptive.

In other words, it shows us things that actually happened but not necessarily the prescribed thing. It’s not describing something that MUST happen but what DID happen.

 

Into the bargain many of the things that happened as recorded in the book of Acts were not normative. That’s to say that just because something happened in the book of Acts doesn’t mean it’s the normal standard or the normal way of doing things. Acts is descriptive. It doesn’t prescribe anything; it simply tells what happened.

It’s the epistles that set doctrine for the body of Christ and explain what’s normative for this dispensation od grace.

Knowing these things will help us in our search.

 

 

Now to understand these keys and the binding and loosing we need to understand that there were three different methods recorded in Acts for three different groups of people, Jew, Samaritan, and Gentile and Peter was there for each one.

They were the salvation of Cornelius, the Gentile, and his household in Acts chapter 10.

The salvation of the Samaritans in Acts chapter 8 and the Jews in Acts 2 The day of Pentecost.

 

Starting with the Jewish method we go to Acts 2:37-38 and Peter had given a long speech about what had happened and particularly how these Jews had crucified The Christ (that’s Acts 2:23),

Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

Acts 2:38  Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So we see that the method given to these Jews by which they could be saved was Repent, Be Baptized, Recieve the Holy Spirit.

Peter was speaking to Israel who had just crucified their Messiah.

He held the “keys” to heaven in regard to what they must do in order to be granted remission and given access to God’s paradise.

 

 

Then we go to the Samaritans in Chapter 8.

Philip had gone down to Samaria and had preached Christ to them and multitudes heeded the preaching and there was great joy there. (Acts 8:5-6)

When they heard about all this in Jerusalem they sent Peter an John down there and let’s see what happened.

Act 8:14-17, Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Until Peter came, the confirmation – meaning the coming of the Spirit – was not given. Peter had the “keys” to heaven, meaning the validation that these believers had been received.

 

Now we come to the gentiles.

In Acts 10, the process is repeated. Remember that the Ethiopian eunuch had already received Jesus. He was saved based on that faith, but Peter was not present. Therefore, a demonstration of Gentile salvation was still required for Peter who held the “keys” to heaven. That demonstration now happens with the saving of Cornelius, The Gentile, and his household.

You recall in the early section of Acts 10, that Peter is shown by God in a very graphic way that he could and should enter the home of these gentile and eat with them, something he would never have done normally as a Jew.

Peter begins to preach to these gentiles but before he could even get to the point he was coming to look what happens in Acts 10:44,

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.

The Holy Spirit came upon these Gentiles with nothing but the preaching of the Word of God.

Peter completed his words to Cornelius in the last verse with the words, “To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

The words were direct, and they included nothing else.

It wasn’t a belief that required any outward validation or sign, such as them saying, “Yes, I believe.”

It was an inward belief alone.

By simply hearing Peter’s words and then by believing in their hearts (the heart in the Bible is the center of our moral being and the place where our volitional choices are made), it says that “the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.”

They heard the word as spoken by Peter. They had faith in what that word said. They then received the Holy Spirit. This is the process Paul states in Romans 10:17,

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

From there, the process continues in Ephesians 1:13-14,

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

The process, then, is – hear the word of God, have faith in the word which brings trust to the heart, and at that moment, the sealing of the Holy Spirit is accomplished.

 

Peter has now validated that all people – Jew, Samaritan, and Gentile – have been saved by faith and faith alone in the work of Jesus Christ.

Peter was the apostle selected by Jesus to confirm that access to heaven is granted to the various people groups that we’ve mentioned, Jews (Acts 2), Samaritans (Acts 8), and Gentiles (Acts 10).

He’s the only one recorded as being present at all three instances where the Holy Spirit came upon the believers.

Therefore, it’s Peter who was given as the witness to confirm the events.

And so, now we ask, which of these three accounts is normative, or the normal standard for receiving salvation?

Which one is to be expected in the future? The answer is, “None of the three accounts is normative.”

Peters now validated that all – Jew, Samaritan, and Gentile – have been saved by faith and faith alone in the work of Jesus Christ.

He’d also told those of Israel who had rejected Jesus that they had to repent (change their minds) about their rejection, to openly acknowledge this, and they too would receive the Spirit.

That’s never needed again, except by those who first reject Jesus, because of these three groups only Israel had rejected their Messiah.

Now, when a person rejects Jesus and he later changes his mind (repents), he receives the Spirit when he believes.

For those who’ve never rejected Jesus, the method we just noted in the epistles is what’s normative and what now occurs.

Romans 10:17,

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

From there, the process continues in Ephesians 1:13-14,

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Of course many other passages in the epistles confirm that this is now the normative, the normal standard the correct process.

 

No outward display of the Spirit is necessary, nor is it to be expected, because the proof has been provided to Peter, it was witnessed as required by Scripture, and it’s now documented in Scripture and substantiated as normative, or the normal standard of procedure. Hence, these examples are the recorded proofs necessary for those who believe the gospel to know that they too are saved upon faith alone in the work of Jesus Christ.

 

What’s been presented in Acts concerning salvation clearly demonstrates that there is one (and only one gospel). It also clearly demonstrates that this gospel is open to all, Jew, and Gentile, through faith alone.

It’s faith plus nothing. Anything else added to that process sneaks into the faith plus works area where faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ is not enough, we need to add something.  This is to deny that Christ’s shed blood and His sacrifice on the cross was incomplete or substandard and we need to add something to it other than simple belief. Could there be a greater heresy?

 

Now, there are actions that can take place after the step of accepting and believing Who Jesus is and what He did to redeem us. We can be baptised in water as an outward symbol of an inward change, we can attend church, pray to and worship God and even undertake a study of the bible, but these are never ever things we do to be saved. We do these things because we’re saved not to be saved and that’s vitally important to know.

 

Now, today, our doctrine comes from the epistles.

The epistles, for those who don’t know, are the letters written to the Body of Christ primarily by the apostle Paul but also the other apostles.

Paul’s epistles are known as the Pauline epistles. They are.

Romans

1 Corinthians

2 Corinthians

Galatians

Ephesians

Philippians

Colossians

1 Thessalonians

2 Thessalonians

1 Timothy

2 Timothy

Titus

Philemon

 

There’re eight other epistles written by the other apostles. These are also known as the General Epistles because they’re not addressed to specific churches or individuals, like Paul’s epistles.  These are the other epistles:

James

1 Peter

2 Peter

1 John

2 John

3 John

Jude

Hebrews (Hebrews is also believed by many, if not most, scholars to have been written by Paul.)

 

The varied descriptive accounts in Acts, remember what descriptive means, are intended to lead us to instructions and processes found in the epistles that are now stabilised and established.

The words of Jesus in Acts 1:8 are now becoming a reality,

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

 

The word went first to Jerusalem, then to Judea and Samaria. Now, it begins to go “to the end of the earth” with the inclusion of these Gentiles in the presence of Peter.

With this formula established, the Word will continue to go out, but without the necessity of Peter verifying what’s occurred.

The “keys” to heaven have been used for the Jew, for the Samaritan, and for the Gentile.

 

Then we come to the binding and loosing aspect.

, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 

Notice Jesus does not say “whoever,” but “whatever.”

The saying refers to points of doctrine or practice which might come into dispute.

Jewish Rabbis used the terms “bind” and “loose” in regard to religious law. The power of binding and loosing was always claimed by the Pharisees.

This didn’t just mean that they simply decided what, according to the Law, was forbidden or allowed, but that they also possessed the power of tying or untying a thing by their authority.

They could, by the power they had, make a person an abomination or an enemy who practiced anything other than what they interpreted as the process of the law.

We saw this exact situation in Matthew 12:10 when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand on the sabbath,

And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they (the religious rulers) asked Him (Jesus), saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him. 

So, this power “to bind and to loose” was to forbid and to permit.

 

So, we can understand that Peter was given the authority to dictate what things were and were not considered to be the correct procedure.

The power to bind and loose was just the process of directing the formula or the practice, of the new-born, inexperienced church, and finalising a uniform process by which a person’s saved.

In this, there’s a very special assignment of the keys of the Kingdom to Simon Peter along with the assignment of binding the processes that were wrong and loosing the processes that were right.

 

Why do people so easily gravitate to the paranormal, the spooky or the wooey hooey instead of studying something out?

Pride!

They want to be noticed, to be seen as someone who’s quote, “In the Know” more than anyone else. Quite often this desire leads not only to that person’s awful error, but it affects all those that’re at the receiving end of this person’s error.

This just isn’t God’s way, friends.

 

To Mattew 16:20 now,

Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ. 

 

The time for that has passed. The people have rejected Him.

Because of Israel’s unbelief, no good could come from announcing that Jesus is the Christ.

In fact, any attempt to crown Him King would’ve been ruthlessly crushed by the Romans.

Here’s the turning point of Jesus’ ministry. From this point on there’s another direction.

His course was now set to Calvary and His work on the cross.

 

You see, the mere knowledge of who He is won’t save a person.

To find salvation we must know who He is of course. He’s the Christ, the God/man, fully God and fully man.

But we also must know what He did.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4,

…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures… 

He died to redeem us from our sin, and we must accept Him and what He did by faith.

Ephesians 2:8,

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

 

Next time my friends we’ll see that after Jesus has given the revelation of His building of the church, He speaks for the first time about His soon to come suffering, His death and resurrection. He knows that this’s what now lies before Him.

Until then may you make your eternal salvation a priority today if you haven’t already. Nothing else, not the things of this world, or life or death is more important to you.